Lentil Lasagne
Although we cook this style of lentils a lot, we usually eat it with crusty bread or spaghetti rather than making it into lasagne. The original recipe was actually for lasagne though so I’m not quite sure why it’s taken us so long to get round to it. Still, I’m glad we got there eventually because this was really good. The bechamel sauce and the extra cooking in the oven gave the overall dish a really rounded and deep flavour.
Original recipe here, although this version has bacon and sundried tomatoes in which intensified the deep flavours.
Rajma – Red Kidney Bean Curry
Last week we had decided to cook a bean-based curry this week. Having had sausages last night for the first time in ages, we were in the mood for sausages again today, but bean curry it was. That probably wasn’t a very good place to start as our hearts weren’t quite in it, however we pressed on against the odds. We had already soaked the beans overnight anyway.
We did follow a recipe to some degree, but changed a few things along the way. What we ended up doing was something like this:
2 cans worth of dry red kidney beans, soaked overnight
cooking oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 medium-sized onions chopped fine
2-inch piece of ginger, cut into julienne strips
6 cloves of garlic minced
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 fresh red chilli finely chopped
2 tsps coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt
pinch of asofetida
coriander leaves, chopped
First boil the soaked kidney beans hard for 20 minutes, then rinse them thoroughly under running water before simmering them until they are done. This needs to be done to remove toxins from the beans.
Heat some oil in a deep pan and add the cumin seeds. When they stop sizzling, add the onion and fry till soft. Add the ginger and garlic and fry for 2 minutes. Add the chopped chilli, coriander, cumin, turmeric and garam masala and fry for a few minutes to cook the rawness out of the spices.
Then add the tomatoes, cooked kidney beans, two cups of warm water, asofetida, salt to taste and cook for ten minutes. Mash some of the beans and stir them back in to thicken the gravy. Garnish with corainder and serve with basmati rice and salad, pickles, etc.
I quite liked this in some ways but Kerri wasn’t that keen on it. Being used to Indian dishes that are marinated for a long time or contain sauces with heavily cooked down onions, this dish with its short cooking time seemed a bit like separate ingredients combined together rather than a cohesive dish. However, that did make it fresh and interesting. And tasting some leftovers from the pot afterwards, it had taken on a little more of a combined flavour from resting.
Sausages with Roast Tomatoes and Onions
Our plans for this evening changed many times, but eventually Kerri went to the butcher and bought some lovely Cumberland style sausages (I call them “Cumberland style” rather than actual Cumberland because they are not in big coils… have had complaints about that before!). She roasted these in the oven with some cherry tomatoes, sliced red onion and garlic with some oil, balsamic vinegar and herbs. It was based on one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes.
We ate it with some crushed new potatoes. The potatoes needed a little more cooking as they were “al dente”, but otherwise it was delicious. The first time we’ve had sausages in a while I think, and well worth it.
Chorizo, Beans and Kale
A fairly quick and easy dinner this evening, which was inspired by something similar that we saw on television over the weekend and then backed up by something in a Spanish cookbook. However, these both used chickpeas and there were various other different ingredients, so we are claiming this as our own. Mostly because it turned out well; if it had turned out rubbish them I’m sure we would be disowning it and blaming someone else.
The recipe goes something like this:
100g dry haricot (navy) beans, soaked overnight and then boiled until almost cooked
400g tin of plum tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
100g cooking chorizo
1 tsp paprika (optional)
1 medium onion, sliced finely
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Decent amount of kale leaves, or some spinach or chard
few sprigs of thyme
oil for frying
salt and pepper
250ml vegetable stock
Chop the chorizo into smallish pieces, and fry in a little oil until starting to take on some colour and crisp up a bit. After this, I tipped out most of the chorizo oil, but if you’re not trying to be healthy then leave it in there as it does have a lovely flavour. Then add the onions and stir – if you did tip out the chorizo oil then you’ll need to add some more olive oil for the onions. When the onions have softened a little, add the garlic and also the paprika if using – the chorizo does contain quite a lot of paprika anyway.
Blend the tomatoes into a passata-like consistency – we just did this with a hand blender and it worked fine. Pour that in and also add the beans, the thyme, a squeeze of lemon juice and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Add a little of stock if needed, and let it all heat through and cook together a bit. You don’t need to do this for very long, but we let it go for a while to cook down a bit as we tasted it and thought that it needed to.
When you are a few minutes away from the end of cooking, add the kale or spinach and let that cook through, then check for seasoning and serve! You can serve it on its own, or with some crusty bread or some rice if you prefer.
Barbecued Tandoori Chicken, Sag Aloo and Naan Bread
Having made something similar to sag aloo last week, we decided that far too much time has passed since we cooked any Indian food and decided to cook tandoori chicken again with some sag aloo and also have another go at naan bread.
Our last attempt at naan bread was pretty much a complete disaster so this time we used Heston Blummenthal’s recipe. Although well known for very complicated recipes that require lots of industrial equipment, this recipe was pretty straight forwardl. His recipe requires the use of two, square pizza stones which we don’t have so we improvised with just the one, round stone and a baking tray which worked out well. The basic principle requires heating the grill as high as it will go for 20 minutes and leaning the stone against the side of the oven, resting on the afore-mentioned baking tray. When the oven is as hot as it can be, the door can be opened and the naan bread slapped onto the side of the stone. The first one slipped down quite drastically so we discarded it and tried again. The second attempt was much better and stuck to the stone reasonably well. By the time we came to the last bread, I think we almost had it. They puffed up well and had the characteristically bubbly surface that naan bread is well known for.
The chicken was cooked to the recipe we used last time, as was the sag aloo. We replaced the spinach with some of the kale that Dan gave us last week which worked well although was obviously different to the spinach flavour.
It was all good and worked well with the tomato salad Stephen made. A simple combination of tomato, cucumber, onion, coriander, oil and cumin.
Courgette Spaghetti with Lemon and Pine Nuts
A slightly unusual Sunday lunch for us, we tend to stick with the traditional roast in the Winter months and barbecues in the warmer Spring and Summer. We do have a barbecue planned for later today but Stephen had a pasta craving so, pasta with the last of Dan’s courgettes it was.
While the pasta is cooking, fry off some garlic in olive oil until it just begins to colour. Add the courgette strips (we used a vegetable peeler for this) with some salt and cook until they’ve softened and all the water has cooked out. Add some grated lemon zest, the juice of half a lemon and a grind of black pepper before finishing with some good olive oil. We added some toasted pine nuts too.
There was a slight bitterness to this, probably because we left the courgette a little too long before eating but itt was well balanced otherwise and made a lovely, light, Summer lunch.
The Harwood Arms
There have been many good reviews of the Harwood Arms in the last few months and, given that we live within walking distance and haven’t visited, last night’s dinner was long overdue.
The room itself is lovely, open and bright with high ceilings and big windows; a combination of new and old decor lends a comfortable and familiar feel to the space. This is more restaurant than bar really with the majority of the room filled with mismatched tables and chairs but Stephen and I were lucky enough to grab a sofa in the small area by the fire so we could have a pre-dinner drink while waiting for our friends to arrive.
The great thing about dining with good friends is the opportunity to share dishes and taste more of the menu, which is what usually happens when we eat out with these particular friends. When it came to ordering last night though we all ended up with pretty much the same dishes which led to some discussion about changing our order, my stance is firm on this though: always go with your first choice otherwise you’re inevitably disappointed and regret the last minute change of mind.
One thing that wasn’t likely to change under any circumstances was the ordering of the much-talked-about venison scotch egg. Stephen said it was the best he’d ever had and it certainly looked good, a great crust giving way to a moist, meaty interior before revealing the perfectly-cooked egg at the centre.
I opted for snails to start. I’ve only really seen snails on French menus before so I was excited and intrigued to see how the Harwood Arms would treat them. The presentation was different to the French style and it took me a little while to work out the right technique for releasing the buttery snails from their shell but, once I’d mastered it, there was no stopping me. The first one was a little rubbery but the other four (sadly I had to give one to Stephen) were great; larger than their French cousins, meaty with plenty of garlic butter and crunchy breadcrumbs and a sliver of bone marrow which further enhanced the meaty flavour.
My main course of cod with crayfish and Jersey Royal potatoes had the potential to be good but sadly wasn’t brilliant. I was hesitant about ordering cod given the sustainability issues but couldn’t resist the lure of the crayfish which I love and which the Harwood Arms is known for. The cod itself was very small and, given it’s size, there were far too many potatoes, many of which were over-cooked and I don’t think they were seasoned at all. The sauce was tasty and would have been great to mop up with the potatoes but it was just too thin so remained in a pool with the leftover potatoes at the bottom of the dish. And the dish itself was just ridiculous. It looked attractive (apart from the many chips around the edges) but was almost impossible to eat out of, unless you had ordered something like a risotto or a pasta dish. Far too difficult to try and cut fish and potatoes without ending up with a big mess in the bowl.
The boys both went for the braised shoulder of lamb which was very good indeed, perfectly seasoned and moist, intensely lamby in flavour and with the right ratio of potato and vegetable accompaniments. They weren’t so vociferous in their complaints about the dish as I was but they did agree that a plate would have been better.
And then, unusually for me, dessert. I was really keen to try the Earl Grey tea ice-cream as I hadn’t had it before and I’m glad I did. It was unusual at the first taste , slightly spicy and very aromatic but it softened as the ice-cream melted and went perfectly with the home-made garibaldi biscuits.
So, aside from my complaints about the crockery, the lack of seasoning, the small portion size, the undercooked and too-abundant potatoes and the too-thin sauce; I actually really liked the Harwood Arms. Everything else we ate was very good, the room was lovely, the atmosphere was relaxed and the staff were attentive without being pushy. I’d definitely go back, particularly as it’s so close, but next time I’d order something without potatoes that’s easy to eat from a bowl.
Hamburgers
After finally getting our hamburger recipe just the way we wanted, we decide to test them again to make sure we were correct in our measurements and were able to reproduce them. We also quite fancied having burgers for dinner.
I think I was a little too heavy-handed with the mustard this time, and not heavy-handed enough with the salt. I need to blot the grated onion before adding it to the meat to remove some of the moisture and must remember to mix it thoroughly so the seasoning penetrates all of the meat. 500g of meat between two may have been just a little too much meat as well.
We also started experimenting with lamb mince, using rosemary, parsley and dijon mustard. This was a partial success but needs less rosemary next time.
So, almost there but not quite. I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a hardship to keep on going until we get it just right though 🙂
PS – the best thing about the evening was the lovely bottle of white Burgundy that we drank – not really a barbecued burger sort of wine, but we didn’t have a lot else to choose from at the time.
Spiced Potato Salad
Not strictly dinner as we’re out this evening but this was Stephen’s lunch, made with more of Dan’s potatoes and served with some smoked mackerel.
We started off by steaming the potatoes and then dressing them with oil and some salt and pepper; next we added some turmeric, cumin seed, coriander seed and chilli powder. It was at this point that he realised he was almost making sag aloo which reminded us that we haven’t had it for a while so, watch this space.
Pea, Broad Bean and Bacon Salad
I’m not entirely convinced that salad is the right term for this dish, given that the vegetables were pretty heavily outweighed by bacon, cheese and bread fried in olive oil but, as I can’t think of anything better, that’s what we’re going with.
Very easy to put together, just steam the peas and broad beans and then double-pod the beans. Fry the bacon and the bread, tear up the mozarella and mix together with the dressing (olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper and some finely chopped mint).
Although simple, this was a great dish for a hot evening. I didn’t have to have the oven on and only had to stand in front of the hob for a short time. It was more substantial than just a green or mixed salad too which means we won’t be raiding the cupboards later on.
